Thursday, November 27, 2014

Since I grew up in the midwest, I never had a chance to buy any Big Wheels snack cakes. I wasn't even aware of the product until I discovered the boxes for sale on ebay. Big Wheels existed only out east or where Drake's Ring Dings were sold. Essentially, Big Wheels are Ding Dongs. I'm not sure on all the legalities, but Hostess wasn't allowed to sell Ding Dongs in Ring Ding territory because of the similar sounding name and shape. I would like to know the history behind the creation of the Big Wheels mascot Chief Big Wheels. I wonder why Hostess decided to go with a Native American themed character? I suppose since they already had Twinkie the Kid they were going for the whole cowboys and Indian thing. But what does an Indian Chief have to do with a wheel? I like the character, but I'm thinking a race car driver would have been a better fit, especially in the early 1970s.

I added the above box to my collection a couple of years ago and it came from my friend Waffle Whiffer who is a big Hostess collector. Check out his amazing Hostess archive here. Waffle send over this very cool pic of a Chief Big Wheels hat premium from his collection. It's a fantastic piece!

If you have an eagle eye you might notice on the hat that Chief Big Wheels is orange. That's because orange flavored Big Wheels were available for sometime.

The above vacuform Chief Big Wheels has been in my collection for a few years now and came from our friends at the Tiki Ranch. I'm guessing it was probably part of a larger display and is also from the early 70s. The big V started showing up on Hostess products around the same time.

I was hoping to find an old Big Wheels commercial, but there doesn't seem to be any online. Was there any made? I did find two ads from the early 1970s pushing the vitamin fortified campaign.

For one last Big Wheels item, here's a fun iron-on premium from Waffle Whiffer's collection.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May the day be filled with happiness and neato cool fun!!!

Monday, November 24, 2014

Last year (2013) I revisited a must see spot for Rt. 66 enthusiasts and that's John's Modern Cabins. The ol' place is still there slowly decaying on a dead end strip on the old 66 highway.

It is hidden off of I-44 near Newburg, Missouri. John's Modern Cabins is probably the loneliest spot on Route 66. I first visited John's back in 2006 and the place is still just as sad and eerie as before.

The arrow points to nowhere on the sign. You can hear it creak back and fourth when a gust of wind blows through.

The cabin next to the sign has partially collapsed since my last visit in '06.

How great is it that a place with modern in its name has an outhouse? Yeah, pretty great!

My photo from 2006.

For an excellent history of John's Modern Cabins click here and scroll a bit. Wow! After reading that history, I didn't know about the murder connected to the place in 1935 on Halloween night. Okay, that really raises the creepyness of the property. I did some research and found the murder victim Wilma (Billie) Frederickson Duncan's death certificate click here and a photo of her grave click here.

After that not so happy note, you can click here for a video tour of the place.

If you decide to visit John's Modern Cabins, be careful and watch out for rusty nails and snakes! I found both.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Check out these very cool Mopar ads from 1963. I guess this fab four are robot service station men made from Mopar parts. It would be fun if there was an animated commercial from back then, but I didn't find any evidence of one. I hope whoever designed these got a big fat raise!

Monday, November 17, 2014

Holy 75th Anniversary, Batman! Just like I did for Superman on his 75th birthday, I created some desktop wallpapers to honor the dark knight. All are 1920x1080 size. Click the image and save it to your computer or save it as a desktop background.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Here's a fun score for today! Two 1950s Disneyland Hotel soaps. I'm far from an expert, but I believe "and restaurants" was dropped by the 1960s. If so, this is probably one of the early soap wrapper designs for the hotel. They're not in the greatest condition but still a nice piece of Disneyland history to share.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Blade Runner has been discussed and dissected so many times since its 1982 release that I didn't think I had anything new to share. However, I was surprised when I did a simple internet search for Blade Runner neon signs and not much showed up. What? I figured I'd see scads of Blade Runner sign galleries. Maybe even an awesome gallery of production photos of each sign from the 2019 Los Angeles set. This was wishful thinking. I guess sometimes you have to do stuff yourself. Okay internet, you now have a Blade Runner sign gallery. Until a better collection of sign photos surface, here's a bunch of sign screen grabs from Blade Runner. You're welcome.